expression which played habitually about the merchant's gray, deep-set eyes, and thin, firmly-compressed lips. His newly-engraved private card read thus:--'J. B. _de_ Veron, _Mon Sejour_, Ingouville.' Mon Sejour was a charming suburban domicile, situate upon the Cote, as it is usually termed-a sloping eminence on the north of Le Havre, which it commands, and now dotted with similar residences, but at the period we are writing of, very sparsely built upon. Not long after this assumption of the aristocratic prefix to his name, it was discovered that he had insinuated himself into the very narrow and exclusive circle of the De Merodes, who were an unquestionable fragment of the old noblesse, damaged, it is true, almost irretrievably in purse, as their modest establishment on the Cote too plainly testified; but in pedigree as untainted and resplendent as in the palmiest days of the Capets. As the Chevalier de Merode and his daughter Mademoiselle Henriette-Delphine-Hortense-Marie-Chasse-Loup de Merode--described as a tall, fair, and extremely meagre damsel, of about thirty years of age--were known to be rigidly uncompromising in all matters having reference to ancestry, it was concluded that Jean Baptiste do Veron had been able to satisfy his noble friends, that although _de facto_ a merchant from the sad necessities of the evil time, he was _de jure_ entitled to take rank and precedence with the illustrious though decayed nobility of France. It might be, too, as envious gossips whispered, that any slight flaw or break in the chain of De Veron's patrician descent, had been concealed or overlooked in the glitter of his wealth, more especially if it was true, as rumour presently began to circulate, that the immense sum--in French eyes and ears--of 300,000 francs (L.12,000) was to be settled upon Mademoiselle de Merode and her heirs on the day which should see her united in holy wedlock with Eugene de Veron, by this time a fine-looking young man, of one or two-and-twenty, and, like ninety-nine in every hundred of the youth of France, strongly prejudiced _against_ the pretensions of mere birth and hereditary distinction. Rumour in this instance was correctly informed. 'Eugene,' said M. de Veron, addressing his son in his usual cold positive manner, and at the same time locking his private ecritoire, the hand of the clock being just on the stroke of five, the hour for closing--'I have a matter of importance to inform you of. All differences between me and the Chevalier de Merode relative to your marriage with his daughter, Mademoiselle de Merode, are'---- 'Hein!' ejaculated Eugene, suddenly whirling round upon his stool, and confronting his father. 'Hein!' 'All differences, I say,' resumed M. de Veron with unruffled calm and decision, 'between myself and the chevalier are arranged _a l'aimable_; and the contract of marriage will be ready, for your and Mademoiselle de Merode's signature, on Monday next at two precisely.'